*Title:* Once and Again — Pastor Kyle Baldwin, May 30, 2026

Christ died once — and the Christian returns to the cross again and again. In this sermon, Pastor Kyle Baldwin opens with a winter scene: a man walking through the woods after a heavy snowstorm comes upon an old farmhouse, its roof blanketed in snow except for one section near the center, melted completely away. The reason is simple — a fire was burning inside. That is the picture of the Christian life, Pastor Baldwin says: when the fire of Christ truly burns within the heart, what is happening inwardly slowly, continually, begins to reveal itself outwardly. Pride begins to soften. Bitterness begins to weaken. Selfishness begins to lose its hold.

The foundation of that life is a sacrifice made once, and made completely. “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). Every sin ever committed was laid upon the Son of God at Calvary, and when Jesus cried “It is finished,” the price was fully paid. But the believer’s side of the story is daily: “I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31). Pride rises again. Selfishness rises again. Old temptations return again — and so the Christian must continually come back to Christ in dependence and humility. The cross, Pastor Baldwin insists, is not merely life’s general hardships; it enters our experience whenever the will of God conflicts with the desires of self — when the heart wants revenge and Christ commands forgiveness, when pride wants recognition and Jesus teaches humility. Drawing on Bonhoeffer (“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die”), on Jacob’s wrestling at the Jabbok, on John Newton’s softening with age, and on Corrie ten Boom’s forgiveness offered by faith rather than feeling, the sermon presses one point home: self cannot transform self, and the gospel does not polish the old nature — it crucifies it, so that Christ may live within.

The closing note is hope, not heaviness. The death of self is not the destruction of joy, because resurrection follows crucifixion, and the cross stands not only at the beginning of the Christian life but at its center every single day. One day the inward battle will end and the fallen nature will be removed forever; until that day, the invitation is to come to the foot of the cross yet again — to surrender once more, confess once more, forgive once more. Because Christ died once for all, you and I can come to Him again and again.

*Key texts:* Hebrews 10:10; 1 Corinthians 15:31; Luke 9:23; Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:6; John 15:5; 2 Corinthians 4:10 · *Also referenced:* Genesis 32 (Jacob at the Jabbok); Matthew 16:25; Ellen G. White on self-denial and going “often to the foot of the cross”

*Watch:* https://youtu.be/VhxevJCLiRE · *Listen:* https://cloud-1de12d.becdn.net/media/original/ce555506d68cc765ad341228522e932e.mp3